Dr Anna De Simoni
AD HOC study Lead
Anna is based at QMUL and is the Centre co-lead for Patient and Public Involvement at AUKCAR.
Anna is leading the AD-HOC study, an NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research (PGfAR) to carry out an interdisciplinary programme, combining network science, big data analytics and computational social science with industry and charity partners, to examine and theorise the relationship between online peer support and patient health outcomes, and evaluate health impacts of digital social interventions in primary care.
Her expertise includes Primary Care, Evaluation, Qualitative research methodologies, Systematic reviews, Patient and Public Involvement, Multidisciplinary approaches to study digital social interventions and digital interventions to improve adherence to medications in long-term conditions, and Data science.
Prof Chris Griffiths
AD HOC study Co-lead
Chris Griffiths is Professor of Primary Care at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, Co-Director of the Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research, Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Principal Investigator at the MRC-Asthma UK Centre for Allergic Mechanisms in Asthma, Population Health Theme Lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners, and Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
He read Physiological Sciences at Keble College, Oxford, and completed a D.Phil on the endocrine control of gut function at Green Templeton College, Oxford. He qualified at King’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, Kings College London. He has been a general practitioner since 1992. Outside work he enjoys alpine mountaineering, triathlons and beekeeping.
Dr Georgios Karampatakis
Post-doctoral Research Associate
Georgios is based at QMUL and is a qualified pharmacist by background. His research focuses on evaluating healthcare services to generate evidence-based knowledge with regard to their impact and, therefore, inform the wider domains of policy and practice. He is also interested in Fitness to Practice (FTP) data and its potential for learning to enhance education for healthcare professionals.
Dr Helen E Wood
Programme Manager
Helen is based at QMUL and is an experienced researcher and project manager, having previously managed two large studies investigating the impact of air pollution on children’s respiratory health. She has also worked in cancer epidemiology research, managing large national datasets. Helen’s background is in respiratory and exercise physiology. She read Physiological Sciences at Balliol College, Oxford and completed a D.Phil. on control of breathing during exercise at New College, Oxford.
Dr Xiancheng Li
Post-doctoral Researcher
Xiancheng is based at QMUL and worked in computational social science and network science as his background. His research focuses on discovering the network patterns of users’ engagement in online health communities and evaluating the correlation between network properties and users’ health-related outcomes. He is also interested in applying natural language processing to provide an in-depth understanding of the evolution of essential themes, keywords and topics discussed in communities.
Mr Bill Day
AD HOC Co-investigator
Bill is the volunteer Patient and Public Involvement Patient Lead at AUKCAR
Prof Aziz Sheikh
Aziz is based at the University of Edinburgh and is the joint Centre Director at AUKCAR.
Aziz is a primary care academic and epidemiologist with substantial research interests in asthma/allergy and in leveraging the potential of health information technology and data science to transform the delivery of care and improve population health.
He enjoys collaborations with academic colleagues across the globe and works closely with policymakers both in the UK and internationally.
Prof Borislava (Boby) Mihaylova
Boby is based at QMUL and is a health economist with an academic background in Computer Science and Finance (Technical University-Sofia, Bulgaria), Health Economics (University of York, UK) and a DPhil in Public Health and Health Economics (University of Oxford, UK).
At the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, QMUL, she leads research on the impact of diseases and treatments on morbidity, mortality, health-related quality of life and healthcare/other resources and costs; cost-effectiveness of prevention and treatment strategies; and development of evaluative frameworks and disease models to assess net effects of policies and treatments. Her team develops applied and methodological research across high-burden disease areas and public health problems aiming to contribute robust evidence that reliably informs national and international health policy.
Prof Stephanie Taylor
Steph is based at QMUL and is the Director of Research at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health. She is responsible for directing and coordinating the promotion of research activity and supporting strategic decision-making around research in the Institute. She also co-leads the Centre for Primary Care alongside Professor Carol Dezateux.
Since 2009 she has been awarded in excess of £5 million in research grants as principal investigator (or joint PI) and has authored over 300 peer-reviewed research publications.
Dr. Clare Relton
Clare is a senior lecturer in clinical and public health trials at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health. Clare is a research methodologist interested in improving the efficiency and ethics of pragmatic trials with expertise in Trials within Cohorts designs and the patient & clinician experience during recruitment and informed consent processes.
Dr. Neil Walker
Senior Statistician
Neil has 20 years’ experience of working in different areas of statistics, primarily in field of wildlife epidemiology. Neil joined the PCTU statistics team in 2019 and has duly gained experience in relation to clinical trials.